News

A Choreographed Dance: New press to cut downtime, ensure efficiency

  • Published
  • By Geoff Janes
  • Robins Public Affairs

Sometimes you’ve got to get up early in the morning to see what Team Robins goes through to put new equipment in place.

That was the case March 22, 2019 when a new fluid cell press – used to shape sheet metal into the angles and curves of the skin of aircraft – was delivered to the base at 3 a.m.

According to Tony Lucius, 402nd Commodities Maintenance Group engineering section chief, the base already has one of the presses, but it’s getting to the age where it can be down for repairs and expensive to operate. The new press will eliminate that, keeping production on target.

The new press weighs in at a whopping 302,000 pounds and took a specialized 210-foot trailer that’s 18-feet, or two-lanes wide to deliver. And, to give an even better idea of how long this trailer is, it takes a second driver on the back of it – similar to fire department ladder trucks – to assist in making turns.

“It was quite the choreographed dance,”  Lucius said. A regular trailer is 53-feet long.

Further, the company and crew that delivered the equipment had to get special permission through the Georgia Department of Transportation just to move it because it can only travel at night, it requires a state trooper escort and special concessions regarding base entry had to be made.

To traverse the maze of installation streets to get the equipment from Ga. Highway 247 to its new location in Bldg. 140, base security forces and civil engineers to block roads and remove barriers to clear the path. Their solid planning ended up with the final run only requiring three turns.

“One of our big workloads is our capability to do sheet metal,” he said. “When forming sheet metal, the press has a large bladder filled with oil that’s used to press the sheet metal into the shape of a mold.”

An additional 10 truckloads of parts are still scheduled to be delivered, with estimated installation completion in May.